Desert
by AThousandTimesMore
Summary: All she could see for miles and miles was dry sand, each particle no different than the next. She was the only one who stood out in the crowd at her high school. And she wondered if she would survive. Liley one-shot


_**Here's a story I came up with. I know, quick update. Surprise! Enjoy.**_

For Miley, school was like a desert. Little kindergarteners grew up and entered the first grade, starting them on their long journey of schooling. They learned how to add and subtract and write in cursive. And how to make people feel bad by leaving them out of their games. A couple years pass and they're in fifth grade. They've learned multiplication and long division and sentence diagramming. And how to tease and point and insult. Middle school only makes it worse. The girls start wearing shorter skirts and tighter shirts while the guys start caring about what the girls wear. Everything changes. Instead of straight out insults, it's rumors spread quickly through text messaging and whispered conversations.

High school was the worst. Sex and drugs and drama. There was nothing worth paying attention to anymore. The only reason Miley even went to school was so she could pass her classes and get the hell out of there. She didn't want to be stuck in high school for another two years because her mom wouldn't let her drop out. So she ignored the jeers, stares, rumors, insults, and teases for twelve years, shouldering her bag and pressing on, pressing forward under the blinding sun and searching the horizon for the water she longed to drink.

She had always been different, and she hadn't been afraid to show it. When she was little, she never liked playing dress-up, preferring playing war and rodeo with the boys. And when she did play dress-up or house or princess, she was always the boy: the father, the brother, or the prince in shining armor who came to save the helpless princess from the fire-breathing dragon. When she got older, she played baseball instead of softball, football instead of cheerleading, and on the boys' soccer team instead of the girls'. It seemed…natural to her to not want to have anything to do with the other girls.

Then came middle school, which Miley struggled to get through without having any real friends. Oliver was there for her, but he never really understood when Miley said that she wasn't interested in any of the boys she usually hung out with. He had just shrugged and gone on staring at her like he had never seen her before. When Miley asked him why, he just said that she looked different. And when Miley started to look around at the other girls in her grade, she started to notice that _they_ looked different, too.

That was when she figured it out. She wasn't like other girls, and she never had been. Before, she hadn't thought that it was unusual that she dressed more like a boy than a girl, ignoring all the pink, frilly, sparkly dresses and sticking with worn out jeans and t-shirts. But now she dressed most definitely like a guy, her outfit complete with sneakers, tan cargo pants, over large t-shirts, a baseball hat, and a skateboard. She loved the way she looked…she just wasn't sure if she liked the way she felt around other girls.

Her parents said that it was fine. They would love her no matter what. To just be careful about who she told because not a lot of people understood and they didn't want her to get hurt. Miley had been all too trusting. She told Oliver, who thought it was normal and told the whole school. Her life became Hell. And she hated it. From then on, she kept to the shadows, hoping not to bake out in the blistering heat of the desert. Avoiding the rattlesnakes and scorpions that came in the form of people coming to make fun of her. Searching for the blooming oasis that she never thought she'd find. She was searching for the one person who would love her and accept her. And she wasn't finding it.

Her senior year, and she thought that she could see the edge of the desert, the sloping plains with tall grass waving in the gentle breeze, but the home stretch was the hardest. Seniors were getting stressed out and were taking it out on her, teasing her, insulting her, occasionally beating her up. She took it like it was nothing to her, holding her tears back until she got home, in her bedroom, and locked her door behind her. She could see the end, but she was starting to lag behind.

Then, halfway through the year, _she_ transferred to her school. She was the most beautiful person Miley had ever set eyes on. All the boys gaped at her as the California blonde walked down the hall in her tight jeans and form-fitting shirts, swaying her hips just enough to catch their attention. But she turned down every single boy who asked her out. And then, finally, that surfer girl walked up to her table in the cafeteria and sat down right next to her.

At first, Miley was hesitant, not talking to her and just nodding and mumbling an unintelligible reply every time the girl said something. She learned that her name was Lilly, she was from Malibu, California, and she had moved here with her mom. After a few days of Lilly trying to force conversation at the lunch table, Miley finally relented, opening up and taking the first sip of water she had had in the last twelve years.

Lilly was different from everyone else in the school. She was a breath of fresh air, a wave of new ideas, the first sight of the oasis Miley had been seeking for the longest time. They quickly became best friends, practically tied at the hip. And the more time Miley spent with her, the more she fell in love with her. And the more Miley fell in love with Lilly, the more she hid her feelings from the blonde in fear that the girl would push her away.

Finally, after three months of dancing around and hiding her feelings, Lilly made the first move, pressing those perfect lips against Miley's. At first, the brunette was surprised and tensed up as Lilly kissed her, but she gradually relaxed, responding eagerly. After a few moments, she pulled back and looked into Lilly's eyes.

She had found a flower in the middle of the desert.

_**It's not very good, but oh well. Thank you to everyone who's reviewed my stories, I really appreciate it. And please continue to REVIEW!!! Or start if you haven't yet reviewed. Some of you might have already read of my quest for new music. If you have any favorite songs or artists of any genre, go ahead and stick it in with your review. I would really appreciate it. Thank you all again.**_

_**AThousandTimesMore**_


End file.
